1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning endoscope system, and specifically relates to a scanning endoscope system for scanning an object to obtain an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In endoscopes in a medical field, in order to reduce a burden on subjects, various techniques for thinning insertion portions to be inserted into body cavities of the subjects have been proposed. As an example of such techniques, a scanning endoscope including no solid image pickup device in a part corresponding to the aforementioned insertion portion and a system including the scanning endoscope are known.
More specifically, the system including the scanning endoscope is configured to, for example, swing a distal end portion of an illumination fiber that guides illuminating light emitted from a light source section to two-dimensionally scan an object according to a pre-set scanning pattern, receive return light from the object via light-reception fibers disposed in the periphery of the illumination fiber and generate an image of the object based on the return light received via the light-reception fibers. As an example of those having a configuration similar to such system, the scanning beam system disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0218824 is known.